The team has a capacity of 750 assessments a year. However, the list is nearly twice that number, with around 1,300 individuals waiting.

To reduce demand, the South West London Alliance of five clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) has asked the trust to focus on cases where there is also a mental health condition or comorbidity .

Kingston, Richmond, Merton, Wandsworth and Sutton are the CCGs considering the change.

Policy open to challenge

But Patel maintains that the policy is open to challenge through a judicial review.

Autism Eye asked Patel how strong the grounds would be for a judicial review. She replied: “I would say fairly strong. It’s not diagnosing plenty of other children out there.”

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has also questioned the legality of such a move.

Sarah Lambert is head of policy at the NAS. She said the organisation believes the move would go against clinical commissioning groups’ “legal duty”. This duty is to ensure that children can get a diagnosis.

A statement from the South West London Alliance of CCGs said it had not yet decided anything.